King Saud University seeks to become a leader in educational and technological innovation, scientific discovery and creativity through fostering an atmosphere of intellectual inspiration and partnership for the prosperity of society.

Quantum Wave Interference

Use this HTML code to display a screenshot with the words "Click to Run".

When do photons, electrons, and atoms behave like particles and when do they behave like waves? Watch waves spread out and interfere as they pass through a double slit, then get detected on a screen as tiny dots. Use quantum detectors to explore how measurements change the waves and the patterns they produce on the screen.

Keywords

Sample Learning Goals

Visualize a photon, electron, neutron, or helium atom as a wave packet that collapses upon detection.

Visualize what happens to the wave between slit and screen.

Justify how the double slit experiment explains that matter and light behave as waves.

Describe the behavior of a wave function in the presence of a detector, and explain how putting a detector over a slit destroys the interference pattern. Determine how the interference pattern will change if you change the mass, speed, or wavelength.